Ever find yourself lost in a conversation with a friend about nothing?
Nothing important. Just a fun back and forth. Shooting the shit.
Hours pass before you notice that familiar feeling setting in.
You know the feeling I’m talking about.
It’s not anxiety… but it’s close.
It’s that overwhelming sense of guilt that feels like a pit in your stomach.
The voice in your head starts whispering:
“Why are you wasting time?”
“This is so unproductive.”
It kills the vibe immediately.
Every high-performer I know can relate.
Want to see something fascinating?
Google the words “productivity hacks” right now.
Almost all the search results follow the same playbook:
We’re OBSESSED with feeling productive.
But what does that even mean?
To me, productivity is learning or creating at a high speed.
For example, reading Atomic Habits is “productive.”
Watching Gladiator is “unproductive.”
Now, that begs the question:
If it’s easy to classify whether something is productive, why not cut out all the unproductive things?
Well, not only is that unrealistic (good luck having any friends if you do pull it off), but it’s also short-sighted.
You’re a human. Not a robot (yet).
Picture a life where all you do is work or read.
No vacations. No hanging out with friends.
Who wants to live like that?
Some of my favorite times in life have been while completely unplugged from my phone. Savoring the moment.
You’re missing out on the 8th wonder of the world: serendipity.
We’ve talked about expanding your surface area for luck. Let’s take it a step further.
Having an original thought is so cool. You feel smart for thinking of something before anyone else.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, so I’ll let Mark Twain do it instead:
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope." —Mark Twain
What I’m saying is: Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lion King are all the same movie.
Each one follows the beloved Hero’s Journey.
The same goes for your thoughts.
Our ideas are iterations of things we’ve exposed ourselves to.
Articles, experiences, conversations.
Ideas have to come from somewhere. They need inspiration.
Without the unproductive moments, you lose that ability to connect the dots.
This isn’t an excuse to lay in bed and watch Netflix all day. Rather, it’s a simple realization:
There is no productivity without un-productivity.
You have to LIVE so you can SPRINT again.
In a few weeks, we’ll share some strategies from an expert on understanding productivity guilt.
In the meantime, I want to hear from you:
Is productivity guilt something you relate to?
How do you deal with it?
Productivity Paradox